A Handshake, A Curse, and Mistletoe
by Nil1875
Summary: How did it all start? How did it all end? Year 7 Non-DH Complaint T Draco/Harry A story on the end of Voldemort, and the start of something else.


Title: A Handshake, A Curse, and MistletoeRating: T+ Mentions of torture, violence, and sex…not all at : Draco/HarryDisclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Well, it's 11:51am, and I started this around 8:20am. Was just thinking of it in the car, and this is where it went. Please enjoy, and if you like it, REVIEW! 3

"Don't you see?" sobbed Draco. "I have to kill you! Or he'll kill me! I'm under the imperious curse!"

Dumbledore nodded. "My dear boy, fight it. You have the will to break free."

"No! Don't you think I've tried?"

"Draco!" Harry shouted as he moved out in front of Dumbledore.

Draco faltered, his wand lowering a fraction of an inch. "Harry, don't, please!" he begged. "Don't do this, just get out of the way!"

"Draco, kill Dumbledore now!" a new voice, this one belonging to none other than Bellatrix Lastrange joined them, as she, the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, and three Death Eaters joined them.

"Stupify!"

"Expeliarmus!"

Draco watched as his spell hit Harry, sending him back against the wall, even as his own wand flew out of his hand and landed on the ground ten feet away.

"Severus," Dumbledore spoke again, and Draco looked up to his godfather standing by his shoulder, silent as a shadow. "Please…"

"Avada Kadavera!" Snape spoke with a grimace.

Draco watched in horror as Dumbledore fell from the Astronomy tower. Feelings flooded through him and he realized that even under the curse he couldn't take a life. Maybe he really had changed.

"We have to go, now," Snape commanded, dragging Draco away.

"My wand!"

"Leave it, Draco," Snape growled.

Draco's eyes locked with Harry's and he ran. He followed Snape out of the castle, wincing as Bellatrix laughed while she destroyed the Great Hall. He watched as some of his only good memories were destroyed, and he kept running.

"SNAPE!"

'No!' Draco's mind shouted. Harry wasn't supposed to follow them. He was supposed to stay where he was, stay alive.

"Get out of here!" Snape yelled when Draco tried to turn back. With one last glance at Harry, who was running towards them, his intent all on Snape, Draco ran past the Hogwarts Gates and grabbed his waiting aunt. They Disapperated, and he found himself outside his home, Malfoy Manner.

Knowing what he was facing, he did his best to content himself with the fact that there had been a few happy months in his short, screwed up life. A few happy moments, that ironically enough, had been thanks to Harry Potter.

* * *

"Secstumsempra!" Harry shouted, and instead of it working as it had on Draco months before, he found himself thrown back to the ground. He only half heard Snape through the pain in his body and heart.

His mind was elsewhere, and he could do nothing to bring himself back and curse his ex-potions master.

"_Hey…"_

_Harry looked down at Draco, pale as death, laying on a hospital wing bed._

"_What do you want Potter?" Draco sneered. He tried to sit up, so he didn't look so weak in front of his nemesis, but it did no good. He fell back to the bed with a grunt, and started coughing._

"_I…" Green eyes blinked behind round glasses, and Harry sighed, sitting down and reaching for the glass of water on the beside table. "Drink this," he said._

_Then to both their surprises, he helped Draco tilt his head up and sip some of the water._

"_I'm sorry," Harry blurted at last. "I didn't know what that spell would do…I really did just want to help you…"_

_Draco looked at the boy in disbelief. This was the boy who had made a pretext of hating him for the last five and a half years, apologizing for cursing him, and landing him in the hospital wing, with numerous gashes on his chest, that no doubt would leave scars._

"_Apology not accepted, Potter," Draco growled._

_Harry nodded and left the hospital wing silently. But an understanding had passed between them. They never fought again._

Harry dragged himself up and limped back to the castle, where the entire school gathered around Dumbledore's fallen body, most crying openly. They all turned their wands to the sky, dispelling the Dark Mark that Bellatrix had cast over the castle from the Astronomy tower.

The Hogwarts Express came the next day, and the students were sent home immediately. When the train arrived in London, Harry went straight to Grimmauld Place. It was his home now after all.

"Harry?" Lupin was shocked to see the boy on the doorstep, a whole two months before school term ended. He hadn't yet heard the news.

After Harry choked through his explanation, during which time most of the Order arrived, he made Lupin promise to teach him to Apperate the next day. With that behind him, he left them to their meeting. Tonks was still crying, and McGonagall looked like she was about to. Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ron, and the rest of the Weasley family arrived while he was talking to Lupin but he ignored them.

Now, Harry sat on his bed, in the room that had become his in the last two years. He'd cried all he could, and his tears were drying on his face as he wasn't bothering to wipe them away. In his hands he held Draco's wand. He'd instinctively grabbed it when he rushed out after him and Snape.

His fingers stroked the wood as memories flooded him, of happier times. Of the best times in his life, a time when he didn't worry every day.

_Christmas had come to Hogwarts, and Harry was standing on the Hogsmead platform, waiting for Ron and Hermione to catch the train to the Burrow._

"_Sorry about your nose, Potter."_

_Harry jumped, and looked up from the snow, where he'd been absently drawing patterns with his shoe._

_Draco Malfoy was standing beside him, bundled up in a thick green woolen cloak, his Slytherin scarf, and bright silver earmuffs peeked out under a black wool hat._

"_Warm enough Malfoy?" Harry teased._

_Draco's eyes twinkled a little as he smiled under the scarf. A real smile, but no one else could see that. _

"_I hate being cold, Potter. It's the worst feeling in the world."_

_Harry nodded. He hated it too, and he unconsciously drew his cloak closer around him._

"_You going home then?" he asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence._

_Draco stiffened but nodded._

"_You don't want to, do you?"_

_Draco's head whipped around so fast Harry almost laughed at the look on his face. It was gone in a moment, replaced with the signature glower._

"_Feeling intuitive today Potter?" Draco made and attempt to sneer, but it wasn't really holding up._

_Harry shrugged. "If…you want…"_

"_What, Potter?"_

_Harry scratched his head, then smiled. "If you think your pride could handle it, I could owl Molly and see if you can come to the Burrow to stay…"_

_Draco almost smiled all over again. "A nice offer Potter, but don't your red-headed friends all hate me?"_

"_Oy! Malfoy!"_

"_Speak of the devil," Draco frowned as Ron approached them._

"_I could still ask…" Harry muttered. _

_Draco shrugged. "I…wouldn't mind it…"_

"_Or…there's my Godfather's house…in London…I could move the entire party there, and no one can object, because it's my house." Harry was grinning._

"_Harry, why are you talking to this git?" Ron asked as he came to a stop beside Harry._

"_I've invited him to Christmas, in London."_

_Ron blinked. Hermione, who'd been standing next to him, smiled. "At Sirius' house?"_

_Harry grinned. "Why not? We can all fit in there, the Burrow's too small for everyone…"_

"_But Harry, it's…well, it's Malfoy!" Ron complained. Draco raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment, waiting for what Harry would do._

_Harry shrugged. "Stay if you want then, I'm going to London."_

"Harry? It's Hermione, Molly says dinner is ready." Came the soft knock on his door, interrupting Harry's memories. He didn't answer, instead waving away the lights and curling protectively around Draco's wand, buried in his covers.

The next day Lupin started to teach him Apperation. It was much harder than Harry had ever expected, and the feeling of nausea hardly dissipated with time and practice, though he was learning to ignore it.

He did his best to avoid everyone, not spending extra time at meals, and only acknowledging people when he had to.

He'd found the other half of the mirror that Sirius gave him over Christmas, and had given it to Draco on the pretext of a present, telling him how to work it. Now he pulled his out, and sat on his bed, whispering with a note of fear in his voice, 'Draco Malfoy'

Moments passed, before the mirror turned foggy white, and he heard screams. Harry cringed, but listened as voices spoke in the lapse.

"Please, please don't hurt him!" A woman's voice.

"Narcissa get back! You will not help this situation." That was Snape. Snape and Draco's mother.

"Go on Cissa, beg for your boy. Try to change the Dark Lords mind once it's made." Bellatrix.

"My boy, my Draco." Narcissa was sobbing now.

"There is nothing to be done, but accept what he had coming to him." Snape sounded almost comforting.

More screams of agony came drifting out of the mirror in Harry's hand.

"No less than he deserves." Harry felt sick as he recognized the cold voice of Lucius Malfoy. He quickly terminated the connection, he couldn't bare to hear anymore.

When the mirror cleared and he could see his own reflection again, Harry saw his face was streaked with tears.

Months passed, with no word of Voldemort's hide out, plans, or appearance. His Death Eaters did his work for him, reigning terror on the world. Everywhere Harry went, he kept his ears open, for any word of Voldemort or Draco.

Harry spent his days practicing Apperation, or new magic. McGonagall took it upon herself during the summer months, before she had to return to Hogwarts as headmistress, to teach Harry as much as she could in all ranges of Magic.

At night, Harry lay curled on his bed, staring at Draco's wand, thinking.

"_You've outdone yourself, Potter. Why do you suddenly trust me?"_

_Draco was lounging on a couch in the living room of Grimmauld Place, on December 24th__, with a glass of wine in one hand, and a wrapped package in the other._

_Harry just smiled as he finished decorating the huge tree that took up half the room with a charm Professor Flitwick had taught him. _

"_Harry? Did you get those gold bobbles I sent over?" Hermione asked as she poked her head in the door. "Oh, hi Draco."_

_Draco nodded to her before taking a drink of his wine while Harry answered her question._

"_They're floating in the kitchen, they wouldn't stay on the tree."_

_Hermione nodded and made to leave._

"_Oh, and Hermione…"_

"_Yes Harry?"_

_Harry made a significant point of glaring at her, and Draco had to snigger silently. _

"_If I fine any more everlasting mistletoe hanging in weird places, ready to catch unsuspecting people, you'll find yourself caught under some with Fred and George. And you won't be able to run."_

_Hermione's eyes widened, then she blushed, and ran from the room._

_Draco laughed outright as soon as the door closed. "What was all that?" he asked._

_Harry grinned, and pointed at the ceiling. "You may have noticed, that I haven't walked in a straight line all morning."_

_Draco looked up and saw random sprigs of the offending plant on the ceiling. He cringed. "I'm going to really have to avoid that," he muttered._

"_Yeah," Harry said. Draco didn't see him blush before he turned back to the tree._

"_You can open that if you want…"_

_Draco started at Harry's voice and looked down at the small present in his hand. Harry had given it to him earlier before he started decorating the tree. With a small smile he pulled away the plain paper to find a small mirror._

"_It's a communication mirror," Harry explained. "It was my Godfather's. Just, say my name in it, if you ever need something, or want to talk."_

_Draco looked up at Harry, with the first sincere look the Gryffindor had seen. "Thank you, Harry."_

_Harry smiled. They'd finally moved past last names. _

"_You're welcome, Draco."_

Only once during those months, could Harry bring himself to look in the mirror again, and then it was a last resort.

"HARRY! HARRY SHE'S GONE!"

"Ron?" Harry shot up from his bed, pulling the door open. He saw Ron coming up the stairs, a parchment clutched in his hand.

"Hermione," he panted. "They got her! Look!"

Harry grabbed the paper and read, recognizing Lucius Malfoy's pristine handwriting.

_**If you ever want to see your little Mudblood friends again, surrender yourself to the Dark Lord. Surrender, Harry Potter, and she will live.**_

Harry's blood boiled. Wasn't it enough, that they'd killed Dumbledore, tortured Draco, killed uncounted innocents, but now they used his friends against him?

"What are we going to do Harry?" Ron asked. He was crying. "I can't lose her."

Harry nodded and sank back on his bed. He pulled the mirror out of his pocket, and motioned Ron to sit with him.

"Draco Malfoy," he said quietly. He didn't explain, he didn't need to. Ron didn't care anymore.

"There you are, you little mud blood. Enjoy your stay." Bellatrix.

"You'll never get away with this! Harry will defeat Voldemort, and you'll be sorry!" Hermione, sounding as resilient as ever.

"Crucio."

Ron and Harry both gasped and cringed, hearing Hermione scream.

"Enough." This was Snape. Funny how he always joined the conversation.

"When I get my hand on you, you filthy-" Ron started.

"Shh!" Harry said.

"Leave her. She's bait, Lastrange, or can you not comprehend such a concept?"

"Piff. The Dark Lord never said she had to be unharmed. Just alive."

"Enough Bellatrix. Leave."

"Humph."

They two boys heard stomping, and a door slamming.

"Need something else, Godfather?" Harry's breath hitched as he heard Draco speak, the first time he'd heard the Slytherin's voice in months. He hear Draco practically spit the title out at Snape.

There was no answer, and Harry heard the door open and close again.

"Hermione," Ron breathed.

"Wonderful predicament you've got yourself into, Granger."

"Draco? Is that you?" Hermione was sniffing, and Harry could almost hear the tears running down her cheeks.

"How are you liking my family estate?" Draco drawled.

Harry and Ron looked up at each other. They finally had their answer. Voldemort was holed up in Malfoy Manner.

The Order gathered as fast as was humanly possible, and soon Grimmauld Place was packed with Wizards, ready to storm Malfoy Manor in one last stand.

The night came, and they apperated outside the gates.

They made and impressive army, Hogwarts teachers, students, Aurors, and a few who just came along for the fight.

Ginny, Fred, and George blasted the front gate open, and the assault began.

A dual in the parlor, mostly consisting of DA members, and a few Death Eaters, led Harry to the dungeons. He slipped through the door and down the stone stairs as the others covered him.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs he ran to his left, along the row of cells. He finally came to a stop in front of one that was lit up.

His arms held out to the sides with chains, and shackles on his ankles, was Draco. His hair was longer, messy and matted, but still shone like a halo. His pants were in tatters and his shirt was gone. His chest was crisscrossed with scars and cuts, old and new. Harry was willing to bet his back wasn't any better, if not worse, and his heart wrenched.

"ALOHOMORA!"

Draco looked up through his hair at the dark figure that had blasted the door off the cell where he was being held, in the dungeons of his own house.

"Finite Incantartum."

The chains drooped from around Draco's wrists and he fell forward into waiting arms. He heard a muttering, and he tried to distinguish the voice, but the pain from months of beating was too much.

Harry muttered the healing spells he'd been taught, over and over, watching as the shallowest of the cuts healed, and the deepest began to heal, slowly. He worked on Draco's back first, then resettled him to work on his chest.

Draco's teeth were gritted and his muscles were taunt, but slowly the pain receded. He relaxed a bit, allowing the arms and lap to hold his full weight, and when he opened his eyes again, grey locked with green.

"Harry?" he croaked.

"I'm here Draco. Sorry it took me so long," the other boy smiled.

Draco managed to crack a smile, and support his own weight on his elbows, but it was an effort. "You've turned into quite the medi-wizard," he muttered, noting that almost all his cuts and gashes were nearly completely healed. He even felt his energy returning.

"I had a reason to learn," Harry said. He held out his hand, offering Draco his lost wand.

Draco's eyes were shot with turmoil as he stared up at Harry before fierce determination crossed his face, and he grabbed Harry's hand, letting himself be pulled to his feet, and his hand closing around his wand.

"Thank you."

Harry nodded. "We have to get out of here, the others can't hold the Death Eaters off for much longer. Where's Hermione?"

"At the end," Draco pointed, further down from his cell.

Together they ran to the end of the row of cell's. Harry blasted the door open, and dropped to his knees beside Hermione. He preformed the same healing spell on a cut over her eye and several bruised ribs, but she didn't wake. Worried he gathered the limp girl in his arms, and followed Draco towards the stairs. They were almost when Bellatrix appeared from another direction.

"Avada Kadavera!" Draco shouted without a second thought, brandishing his wand.

She dodged, and instead the curse hit Lucius Malfoy, who had been behind her in the narrow passageway. Draco hardly blinked, his father had caused him too much pain over the last few months for him to even remotely care anymore.

"Stupid boy," drawled Bellatrix.

He dodged her spell, and returned with one of his own, making sure to keep Harry and Hermione protected, and leave Harry room to get to the stairs.

"Stupify!"

"Harry, get out of here!" Draco was standing tall once again, adrenalin coursing through his veins, keeping him ready for anything.

Bellatrix now saw Harry and Hermione and sent a killing curse at them.

"Crucio!" Draco yelled. Caught off guard, Bellatrix was hit by the spell and she collapsed.

Glancing over his shoulder to make sure the other two were alright, Draco threw his aunt into a cell and muttered the spell to lock the door, that only he would be able to open. She couldn't apperate out, it was one of the things that made the Malfoy dungeons a notoriously bad place.

Draco and Harry finally made it up the stairs to the Parlor, where they saw the last of the Death Eaters fall to Neville.

"This way," Draco called to the seven former classmates standing in his destroyed house. "We can get out through the kitchens."

Fred, George, Ginny, Luna, Neville, Ron, and Harry all followed him across the room.

Draco prodded the fireplace, trying to open the panel into the secret hallway, and when it wouldn't open he lost his temper. "Incendio!" Draco shouted, and the fireplace disintegrated. They ran along the tunnel and out the door of the kitchen, the only room that still seemed intact. Running through the gardens, Draco stopped at the iron fence, and put his hand against it, opened a hole in the spells and the iron for them all to file out.

"Weasley!" he shouted when he saw the twins trying to set fire to the Manor. "There's an easier way!"

They shot something into the air that caused a loud explosion, and within seconds wizards were pouring out of the Manor to where they were, and going through the fence.

"That's all of us," said former Professor Remus Lupin as he hopped through the hole in the fence. "Nice to see you Draco," he smiled, and Draco nodded.

When they were all past him he muttered to the fence. The spells reactivated, and now they wouldn't deactivate without a password that only he knew. With his father dead he could control the house now, and all the spells on it. The fence glowed as flames licked the entire parameter of the property. Smirking Draco stepped through, watching as the iron bars closed again. No one would be getting in or out, anytime soon.

"Ginny, go!"

Draco turned around to see Ron Disapperate with Hermione in his arms, and Harry and the youngest Weasley shouting at each other. Harry turned to the twins. "Bring him," he said, before grabbing Ginny and disappearing.

"What?" Draco barely had time to ask before two sets of hands gripped his upper arms and they all vanished.

They re-appeared in the drawing room of Grimmauld place, and once he was let go, Draco collapsed onto his favorite couch in the entire world. He breathed in the scent of the pillows and let his memory take him away, ignoring the twins as they left to fetch their mother and the healers.

"_Harry…"_

"_What Draco?"_

"_Er…"_

_Harry looked up and blinked. Had Malfoy really just said 'Er?'_

"_Er? I didn't know you knew that word Draco."_

_Draco glared. "Shove it Potter…it seemed appropriate for the situation."_

"_What situation?"_

_Draco sighed. Those eyes were going to be the death of him. Yes, loath to admit it though he was, during the Christmas break, Draco had been falling hard and fast for Harry Potter._

"_Look," he muttered, point up. _

_They were sitting on the couch in the drawing room, admiring the tree. Everyone else that had come, which amazingly had been most of the Weasley's, Lupin, Tonks, and several others. Draco had been leaning his head back when a sprig of mistletoe had appeared over the center of the couch, effectively catching them both._

_Harry looked up and saw it, and he turned visibly pale. "I'm going to kill her," he said, still somewhat in a state of shock._

_Draco smirked. "Or we could just embrace tradition…"_

_Harry's eyes flitted down to lock with Draco's and he gulped. "We…could…I guess…"_

"_Oh Potter, do shut up," Draco said, rolling his eyes, with a smile on his face._

_He took Harry's hand and pulled him close, resting his other hand on the Gryffindor's cheek, drawing their faces together. Without anymore hesitation, he lay his lips on the other boys. The reaction was instantaneous. Harry groaned and pulled him closer, to which Draco just smirked and pushed Harry back into the couch, covering his entire body with his own._

_It felt like they were on fire, drowning, and being shocked all at once. They were instantly lost in each other, and didn't speak, didn't look back for the rest of the night._

"Draco?"

Draco forced his eyes open to look at the owner of the voice above him. He took in his surroundings and found he was back in the bedroom he'd used over Christmas. He was wearing a pair of green and white striped pajamas, and Harry was sitting on the bed watching him with concern, their fingers intertwined.

"Hey," Draco rasped.

"Hey. Fred said you passed out on the couch."

Draco smiled. "That couch has some good memories for me."

Harry blushed a shade of crimson to rival a Gryffindor flag. "Y-yeah," he muttered.

With a smirk, Draco tugged on the hand grasping his and pulled Harry down so he could capture the other boy's lips. They both sighed at the contact, grateful that they were together again.

"How's Hermione?" Draco asked as they pulled apart. He'd grown very fond of the young witch, and had been torn apart when she was captured.

"She's fine," Harry smiled. "She bumped her head, when Bellatrix was torturing her, but she's awake now. She'll make a full recovery. As for you,"

Draco winced in anticipation.

"Bed rest for the next two weeks, penalty of sleep, food, and a haircut."

Draco raised his eyebrows. Harry blushed again.

"The haircut's mine…you're er…starting to look like your father."

Draco made a face of disgust. "I think the haircut is first on the list then."

Harry snickered and kissed Draco again.

"Voldemort?"

"Dead."

Smiling the two boys embraced each other, and just lay there, until they were interrupted by Fred and George, who were promptly chased by Harry through the house for having snapped a picture with a muggle camera. Draco just laughed as he listened to Harry running through the house screaming obscenities at the twins, and he had to clutch his sides when Mrs. Black's portrait chimed in, louder even that Harry.

With a sigh Draco leaned back against his pillows and wondered how this had all started. It had been so simple.

Their rivalry started with a handshake, or lack thereof.

Their friendship started with a Curse and an apology.

Their lifetime together started with a nosey witch and a sprig of mistletoe.

Yes, it wasn't how Draco Malfoy expected his life to turn out, be he wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

---

What Happened to:

Narcissa: She's alive and well, living with her sister Andromeda.

Voldemort: Well, er…as far as I'm concerned, he got offed by Neville and the twins. 8D

Sirius: Yes, I left him dead, as much as I hate it.

Luna & Neville: Got married, and later teach at Hogwarts.

Ron & Hermione: The same, though Hermione is headmistress after McGonagall retired.

Ginny: Found some nice bloke somewhere.

Bellatrix: Went back to Azkaban, where Demetors preformed a Kiss.

I think that's it. Hope you all enjoyed the story! Please Review!!! 3


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